Early Music Vancouver (EMV), in collaboration with the Pacific Baroque Orchestra (PBO), presents Festive Cantatas: J.S. Bach Magnificat at the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts, December 18, 2016 at 3pm. This program features one of J.S. Bach’s greatest masterpieces for choir and orchestra as it was heard during a Christmas Vespers service in Leipzig in 1723. PBO’s Juno Award-winning Music Director Alexander Weimann leads the Pacific Baroque Orchestra and five internationally-renowned guest soloists in this seasonal celebration and annual tradition.
“I can imagine no better way of celebrating Christmas and the holidays than with this joyous and uplifting music,” says Matthew White, Artistic Director of EMV. “Like the B Minor Mass, the Magnificat includes celebratory trumpets and timpani in several movements that make you want to get up and dance! This is as overtly positive, virtuosic, and full of invention as Bach’s choral writing gets. The use of soloists for the chorus parts allows the music to move extremely freely, as well as for the counter-point to be heard crisply and transparently.”
Early Music Vancouver’s presentation will include four rarely heard and delightful carol inserts that help to illuminate the Nativity story. These inserts harken back to the German custom of giving a dramatic representation of the Nativity story at Christmas Vespers. Their subject matter is the announcement to the shepherds, the angel’s song of praise and cradle song at the manger. The programme also includes Telemann’s uplifting Concerto for 3 Trumpets in D Major (TWV 54) and Bach’s beloved Cantata 140 (Wachet auf).
Early Music Vancouver presents:Festive Cantatas: J.S. Bach Magnificat
Date: Sunday, December 18, 2016 at 3pm
Pre-Concert Talk: Hosted by Matthew White
Sunday, December 18, 2016 at 2:15pm
Address: Chan Centre for the Performing Arts
University of British Columbia
6265 Crescent Road
Ticket prices:From $17.50
Box Office: earlymusic.bc.ca or 604-822-2697